243WITTGENSTEIN, LUDWIGanimal sacrifice as they respect every life-
form and the sacrifice would go against
their creed of “And it harm none, do as
you will.”
WILL. In philosophy of religion, focus
on the will is often in relation to questions
of freedom (viz. Do human beings have
free will?), value (Is it good that we are
creatures with wills of our own?), and the
philosophy of God (If God wills that
persons do X, is X morally required)? See
DIVINE COMMAND THEORY.
WISDOM. Wisdom (or sophia) was
considered both a practical and theoreti-
cal virtue in ancient Greek philosophy.
“Philosophy” literally means “the love of
wisdom” and was considered by Greco-
Roman moralists in ancient philosophy
to be an enterprise which took practical
life and values seriously.
There is also a body of literature called
Wisdom literature, a popular genre in
ancient Near Eastern cultures. Wisdom
(Hebrew: chochmah) is practical and
empirical in its focus, addressing every-
day issues of life, often from a secular
standpoint that seeks to understand the
principles of order in the world and
organize human life accordingly. It is
considered international in scope and
thus applicable to all. In the Hebrew Bible,
books such as Proverbs, Job, and Qohelet
(Ecclesiastes) are categorized as wisdom
literature.
In Jewish-Christian dialogue, wisdom
literature is often given prominence,
for there is some similarity between the
Hebrew Wisdom literature in which
wisdom is characterized as a person (in
Proverbs, wisdom cries out to the people)
and Christian tradition in which the per-
son Jesus Christ is seen as the embodi-
ment of wisdom.WITCHCRAFT. See WICCA.WITTGENSTEIN, LUDWIG (1889–
1951). An Austrian philosopher who had
a major influence on philosophy of lan-
guage and the general practice of philo-
sophy itself. His dynamic life included
studying under Bertrand Russell at Cam-
bridge University, serving as a soldier in
World War I on behalf of the Axis powers,
enduring a time as a prisoner of war, being
a schoolteacher in Austria, and working
philosophically at Cambridge University
surrounded by outstanding students such
as Elizabeth Anscombe. There are two
general periods of his life. In the first
he developed a logical framework by
which one can understand the world and
truth. His chief work of this period,
published as The Tractatus-Logico-
Philosophicus (1921), was recognized by
Russell and G. E. Moore as a work of
genius. Wittgenstein believed he had
solved all philosophical problems in this
early work. Wittgenstein then repudiated
this work, arguing that its underlying